AN ACADEMIC STUDY ON FOOD VENDING IN ACCRA

There has been a continuing growth in urbanisation in developing countries, and governments’ face a major challenge in ensuring that city dwellers are able to procure sufficient food. Street foods are sold in almost every country in the world. The FAO (1989) defines street food as any ready-to-consume food that is sold in public places. Tinker (1997) also defines street food as any minimally processed food sold on the street for immediate consumption.

In most towns and cities in Ghana, selling of snacks and whole meals on the streets is an important way to obtain income, especially among the poor women. Street foods have a long tradition in most countries. The role of this sector in the urbanisation process and the urban economy reflects the way of life and the survival and coping strategies adopted in most African cities.

Rapid urbanisation is breaking down traditional family ties throughout the world and the street food sector is widely understood as an inevitable phenomenon tied to urban growth. This urbanisation and the associated social and structural changes have caused the demand for street food to increase. Longer traveling times between living and working places is likely to lead to further increases in demand.

Accra with a current population of about 3 million is the capital of Ghana and is hampered by an inadequate transportation system linking the sub-urban areas with the commercial and industrial centres where men and women work. Street food accounts for a part of the daily diet and so contributes towards meeting nutritional requirements, although the contribution varies. Urbanisation and migration have changed the patterns of living and eating. The easy availability of foods in the streets of cities and small towns has helped workers cope with long periods of absence from home.

Street foods contribute significantly to food security and nutrition and are physically and economically accessible to most people. It is an activity that provides employment to many, while providing nutritious, inexpensive and tasty food to millions of working women, men, children and students. Unfortunately, the emergence of informal food businesses can cause health problems if the foods are not prepared and handled properly.

Poverty, coupled with rapid urban growth have compelled policymakers, development practitioners and program planners to take another look at food insecurity and malnutrition which hitherto were considered as rural problems. Sustenance in the urban setting is characterised by a dependence on cash incomes, usually earned from the informal sector (Levin et al, 1999).

Lower education, skill levels and childcare responsibilities may force women into the informal sector. Women have an important role in this sector; which draws upon their traditional skills and offers appreciable advantages such as low-start-up capital requirements, the reconciliation of household duties with small-scale trading and the possibility of feeding their families at lower cost (Canet and N’Diaye, 1996).

In Ghana, these women balance their roles as income earners, homemakers and mothers. The share of the food budget spent on processed foods, convenience foods, snacks, and meals available as street foods has increased due to the need for women to save time in food preparation. Ghanaian women play a crucial role in the economy, controlling a large share of market activity and commodity trading. One of the fascinating aspects of urban social life in

Ghana is the widespread presence of street food vendors. Operating from all strategic locations at all hours of day and night, they serve customers with spicy foods, colourful beverages at reasonable and affordable prices.

Long hours of commuting leave little time to cook, which contributes to the huge demand for inexpensive, convenient food near schools and work places. In Ghana the ability of street foods to satisfy unique taste and convenience requirements as well as meet the socio-economic needs of majority of urban dwellers has led to the rapid growth of the sector, and the gaining of some kind of recognition from the governing authorities. In Ghana, national and municipal administrators regulate the street food sector in the cities. These controls take various forms.

Some earlier studies on street food vending in Ghana have taken place. The FAO and WHO have funded these. Unfortunately, the studies did not include potential food safety concerns such as the presence of heavy metals, pesticide residues and the presence of mycotoxins. The studies did not also examine the contribution of these informal micro-enterprises to the Ghanaian economy.

The DFID/NRI/FRI project on improved street-vended foods was a one-year exploratory study aimed at assessing the safety and quality of food sold in Accra as well as estimates the contribution of this sector to the national economy of Ghana. The project complemented previous work carried on the sector by other workers.

This workshop was therefore organized to present findings and identifies new areas where further knowledge is required. As part of this dissemination, key stakeholders of the street-food vending business in Ghana made short presentations on the status of the foods sold in Accra. These short presentations are also included in this report.